Psalm 145 Israel's Stumbling
This afternoon I’ve decided to speak about Israel’s prayer book rather than the parasha. Observant Jews pray Psalm 145 three times every day: once before the Morning Prayer, once after the Morning Prayer, and once before the Afternoon prayer.
Psalm 145 is composed as an acrostic on the Hebrew alphabet. I’m going to read the name of each letter of the Hebrew alphabet as it’s written at the beginning of each verse. In English I’ll try to emphasize with my voice the word that translates the initial word in Hebrew. Psalm 145.
“A psalm of David.
)LP I will exalt you my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
BYT Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever.
GYML Great is HaShem and highly praised, and his greatness is beyond searching.
DLT One generation shall laud your works to the next, and declare your mighty deeds.
H”) On the glorious splendor of your majesty and the stories of your wondrous works I will meditate.
W”W Men shall speak the might of your terrible acts and tell of your greatness.
ZYYN They shall pour forth the memory of your abundant goodness and sing aloud of your righteousness.
X+ HaShem is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in kindness.
+YT HaShem is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
YWD All your works shall give thanks to you HaShem, and all your saints shall bless you.
KP They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom, and tell of your mighty deeds.
LMD To make known to the children of men his mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of his kingdom.
M”M Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
SMK HaShem uplifts all who are fallen, and raises up all who are bowed down.
(YN the eyes of all hope unto you, and you give them their food in due season.
P”H You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
CDY HaShem is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings.
QWP HaShem is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth.
R”$ He fulfills the desire of all who fear him, he also hears their cry and saves them.
$YN HaShem preserves all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
T”P My mouth will speak the praise of HaShem, let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.”
A psalm arranged on acrostics is much easier to remember. When it is copied and recopied by scribes, it’s less likely to be corrupted. In the Book of Psalms we have eight psalms arranged on acrostics.
But our Psalm is missing a verse for נון, the Hebrew letter “n.” Any attentive reader is bothered by an acrostic that skips a letter. To make matters worse, this is one of the most prayed and repeated of all the psalms in the Psalter. In the Babylonian Talmud Rabbi Elazar bar Avina teaches:
“Everyone who says this psalm of David, every day, three times — it is promised that he is a son of the age to come.” [brakhot 4b]
So what happened to the verse that ought to begin with the letter נון? To the careful reader in antiquity this missing letter can’t be an accident. Behind it must be concealed some lesson of great importance. It demands an explanation! The Talmud continues.
“Rabbi Yochannon said, ‘Why is no נון verse said in Psalm 145? Because it pertains to the fall of those who hate Israel. As it is written: “She has fallen no more to rise, the virgin Israel.”‘“ [brakhot 4b]
Unquote. The expression “those who hate Israel” is a euphemism for Israel herself. Rabbi Yochannon means to say: “There’s no נון verse in Psalm 145, because it pertains to the fall of Israel.”
Rabbi Yochannon locates the missing נון verse over in Amos 5 verse 2:
“She has fallen, no more to rise, the virgin Israel, forsaken on her land with none to raise her up.”
Well sure enough, Amos 5 verse 2 does begin with the letter נון, but this verse is one of the most dire prophecies of national calamity in all the Bible! Rabbi Yochannon has latched onto a verse more difficult, if that could be, than the one that isn’t there. How is a Jew in exile to understand such a prophecy of calamity, seemingly unqualified by any further hope?
We must remember that Rabbi Yochannon lived long after the second destruction of Jerusalem. How could a man, whose whole life was defined by the Torah and the Prophets, come to grips with the awful pronouncement?
“She has fallen, no more to rise, the virgin Israel.”
Israel’s sages tackle the problem prophecy head on. In bold defiance of grammar, they parse the wording differently altogether. They take the word קום“to rise,” as if it were קומי: the infinitive verb as if it were the feminine imperative. Continuing where we left of in the Talmud. I quote.
“In the west, they resolve it thus. ‘She has fallen and will no more — rise O virgin Israel!’” [brakhot 4b]
Unquote. That puts things quite differently from “She has fallen no more to rise, the virgin Israel.” By ignoring grammar and re-punctuating the sentence, the sages have produced the opposite meaning.
In the West, that is the land of Israel, remember the Babylonian Talmud develops in Babylon — in the West the Sages have assimilated the prophecy of Amos 5:2 to the prophecy of Isaiah 52:2. This they can do, due to the common words “no more” and “rise,” which occur in both passages. The Sages had a rule of interpretation called gzara shava, which allows comparing passages with common elements. gzara shava is Scripture compared with Scripture on steroids. Isaiah 52:2 reads:
“For there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake yourself from the dust, rise O captive Jerusalem!”
But this extraordinary clever explanation that Amos 5:2 is the missing נון verse in did not satisfy everybody. Continuing with our place in the Talmud.
“Rav Nachman son of Yitzchak said, ‘Even if this were so, David reversed himself and upheld Israel under the inspiration of Ruach HaQodesh. As it is written, “HaShem upholds all the fallen.”‘“ [brakhot 4b]
To appreciate this explanation of the omitted נון verse, we must recall the sages concept of inspiration. For Israel’s sages, any author of Scripture could foresee what any other author was going to say, even centuries afterwards, because they were all under inspiration of Ruach HaQodesh.
So appalled by the downfall of Israel, David omits the נון verse from Psalm 145. Perceiving however, that someday Amos will go ahead and pen the terrible prophecy anyway that David can’t bring himself to write, “She has fallen and will no more rise, the virgin Israel,” David hastens to add in the very next verse:
“HaShem uplifts all who are fallen, and raises up all who are bowed down!”
This is wonderful preaching. It’s more than clever. Rav Nachman kills two birds with one stone. Not only does he account for the absence of a missing verse in Psalm 145, but he settles Jewish anxiety over the dreadful prophecy in the Book of Amos.
The wild and wonderful interpretation of Rav Nachman allows the Bible to speak God’s word directly to the spiritual situation of his generation. Exiled Israel, bowed down, fallen in the dust, harassed on every side, is not abandoned after all. As the observant Jew prays three times per day:
“HaShem uplifts all who are fallen, and raises up all who are bowed down.”
The sages could, of course, have moderated the prophesied fall of Israel by pointing out its temporary duration. The proof-texts are certainly there for the asking. Jeremiah 8:4.
“You shall say to them, thus says HaShem, ‘When they fall will not they rise?’”
Israel’s sages could have quoted Psalm 37:24 for support.
“Though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for HaShem upholds his hand.”
Whenever the Hebrew Bible speaks of Israel’s downfall, it’s always mingled with hope. Israel’s fall is never presented as an irreversible situation. And the same is true for the Final Portion of Scripture. Let’s turn our attention to Romans chapter 11. Romans 11:1-12
“Consequently I say, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I also am an Israelite, of Avraham’s seed, of the tribe of Binyamin. God has not rejected his people, whom he knew in advance. Or do you not know what Scripture says about Eliyahu? When he pleads with God concerning Israel, ‘HaShem, your prophets they have killed, your altars they have torn down, and I alone am left. And they seek my soul.’ But what does the divine reply say to him? ‘There remains to me seven thousand men who have not bent the knee to Baal.’ Consequently, so also there is a remnant at the present time, according to God’s gracious choice. And if it is gracious, then it is no longer a matter of performance; otherwise grace is no longer gracious. What then? That which Israel seeks, this she has not obtained, but the chosen have obtained it, and the remainder were blinded. Just as it is written, ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear.’ David also says, ‘Let their table become a snare and a trap, an obstacle and a recompense to them. May their eyes be darkened that they may not see. Bend their back always!’ Consequently I say, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their misstep, salvation is to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. Now if their misstep is riches for the world, and their defeat is riches for the Gentiles, all the more their fullness.”
That fact that in his day, most Jewish people, even Jewish people who’d accepted Jesus, didn’t recognize that God had opened the way for direct Gentile incorporation into the family, completely bypassing the covenant at Sinai, was distressing for the Apostle Paul. That his own people should fail to recognize the inclusion of the Gentiles was extremely disturbing. After all, the inclusion of the Gentiles was a major keynote in Israel’s endtime hope. This is the reason why Paul writes his letters to the Galatians and to the Romans. The Apostle Paul considered Israel’s lack of discernment in this matter to be a Jewish national disaster. He calls Israel’s non-recognition of the Gentiles “Israel’s stumbling.” But he hastens to add that Israel’s stumbling isn’t a permanent condition. It’s not like Israel has fallen headlong or has suffered a knockdown. Israel is tottering, but will regain her footing. Israel will someday come to recognize what God has done to bring the non-Jewish world to himself.
The imagery in Romans 11 is taken from athletic competition. Anybody who reads the Apostle Paul knows how much he likes sports. A runner in a race may trip up, but still catch himself, without falling smack down and being disqualified. In case anybody gets the wrong idea from seeing Israel trip up, in Romans chapter 11 Rav Shaul dissuades them three times.
First in verse 1,
“Consequently I say, has God rejected his people? By no means!”
Then in verse 4,
“God has not rejected his people, whom he knew in advance.”
Then also in verse 11,
“Consequently I say, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means!”
Israel has zeal, but doesn’t know how to run. Israel doesn’t understand that in Mashiach, God has also equipped the Gentiles to run. Israel has misunderstood God’s plan for saving the Gentiles and has substituted a missionary program of their own. In reality, Mashiach has made the Gentiles very competitive runners. Romans 10:1-4.
“Brothers and sisters, the desire of my heart and prayer to God on their behalf is for salvation. For I bear witness to them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their particular righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For the goal of Torah, Mashiach, is righteousness for every believer.”
Israel will someday come to recognize what God has done in making obedient Gentiles full partners with Israel in his plan for redeeming the world. The Apostle Paul’s message is the same as that of Rav Nachman son of Yitzchak: Israel has stumbled, but has not fallen, and is not out of the race. Israel will be provoked to jealousy, take some running lessons from the competition, and finish the race.
The reason Israel will finish is disarmingly simple: God’s promise to make Father Avraham the father of many Gentiles is an unconditional promise. As a matter of fact, every time the Apostle Paul presents his gospel that non-Jews aren’t intended come to God via Torah anymore, he always brings up the example of Father Avraham. God promised to make Avraham the Father of a multitude of Gentiles long before he made his covenant with Israel at Sinai or even gave Avraham the sign of the covenant. Both the promise to bring the Gentiles to himself, and the promise to make Israel the chosen instrument of this mission, are unconditional promises.
When I say that the promises to Avraham and Sara are unconditional I don’t mean that all Jewish people will necessarily go to heaven. Individual Jews are capable of turning their backs on God just like other individuals. But Jews don’t join God’s family. Long ago they were chosen for a special mission task without their consent. God made a covenant with Avraham and Sara and their descendents without consulting the descendents, who weren’t around at the time. By assimilation into the world around them, it is possible for individual Jewish parents to disconnect their descendants from their God-appointed mission task, but Israel cannot wiggle out of the covenant.
Israel’s election is so absolutely contrary to the rhetoric Evangelical Christians have been weaned on, Seventh-day Adventists find it hard to get a handle on it: “Your fine Christian home can’t save you, your Christian community can’t save you, your church family can’t save you, your momma’s prayers can’t save you, you must make your own independent decision. Jesus only works with individuals...” Israel’s election is the big bold exception to Evangelical individualism. It’s a big enough exception to make Christians who claim to follow the Bible reexamine Evangelical individualism. Individuals may opt out of salvation at any time of their own volition, but neither Israel nor the church can escape their unique mission task in the plan of salvation. God has promised and that’s that.
Now I can’t resist a postscript from a technical perspective. I think we’ve had enough about Israel’s stumbling for one afternoon.
Actually the missing נון verse in Psalm 145 didn’t go permanently missing. It merely fell out by a scribal mishap from one single manuscript. Unfortunately, that manuscript was an ancestor of our Hebrew Bible. The ancient versions of the Bible: the Greek version, the Syriac version, the Latin version, all preserve a verse here which in Hebrew would begin with the letter נון. I can quite confidently retranslate this verse back into Hebrew.
“Faithful is HaShem in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds.”
We see in this little vignette of Talmudic interpretation how faith in God’s faithfulness triumphs over all: over the sad history of our disobedience, over Jewish and Gentile misapprehension of each other, even over grammar! Both the Hebrew Bible and the Final Portion of Scripture teach that Israel has not stumbled so as to fall. Even the verse that isn’t there teaches Israel’s tripping up isn’t permanent!
